The blizzard ended by morning.
It was one of the worst blizzards on record for Ashrya, lasting over three full days. The blue skies and its lone sun looked down on a world that was completely covered with snow. The red rooftops of the various palaces scattered around Jade City were the only things that stuck out above the deep snowdrifts.
Past the iron gates of Tamein Palace, the courtyards had been mostly cleared of snow. As soon as the blizzard had passed, every available hand got busy digging the palace out from the snow piles, creating paths, and clearing space for evacuees.
Most of the lower dwellings outside of Jade had been completely covered, their inhabitants evacuated. Long lines stretched at the gates, waiting for daybreak to be allowed into the city. The logistics were a huge nightmare, and the Emperor had already sent out decrees for all available wizards to join the effort to clear the snow within the city walls, and to assist with evacuation.
Still, not everyone was able to leave. Reports had come in from various regions that there were over a thousand people who had perished within the space of those three days.
Zander had set up a portal leading directly into the courtyard of Tamein palace for evacuees, and during those crucial days, they had begun streaming into the palace grounds. The evacuees filled up the entire carriage house and equine area where the horses were kept.
When there was no more room, the guards set up tents in the various gardens surrounding the palace. The only space left that was not inhabited by the storm refugees was the inner garden courtyard that Mira's bedroom overlooked.
Zander had been adamant that Mira's courtyard be free from people running rampant. Safety issues aside, he did not want any stray male eyes catching sight of his woman inside her room.
There was almost no need for this vigilant tender care. Mira was already up at the crack of dawn, running around with her handmaidens, attending to details of the rescue efforts.
The blizzard had caused such severe damage to structures and buildings, and the cold had affected so many people that a sizable number of evacuees had varying degrees of physical injuries. The two healers living within the Tamein palace were completely overwhelmed.
From an upper story window, Zander watched with interest, the frenzied activities below.
His wife was wearing the warm woolen brown robes that the serving maids wore instead of all the fancy jewel-embedded dresses he had the seamstresses prepare for her. Mira's hair was tied back into a long ponytail, and she was running around, bandaging people, giving medicines, and helping the healers.
Her bright clear face was clean and free of powder, and her hair and body were completely unadorned with the wealth and opulence that his kingdom could provide her. It didn't matter in the least. His heart still ached with love for her.
Carol was also dressed in the same brown wool that Mira had given her, and she was helping out where she could. She was seated by a table filled with strange healer supplies.
Zander's eyes softened. Those supplies had been hand-carried into Ashrya to help the injured by a woman who could barely even walk.
Even though Zander knew that both Carol and Mira were both healers in their worlds, he was still impressed with the quality of their care. These were no dainty frail females who were scared of blood and gore. They were stitching wounds, setting broken limbs, treating frost bites, cleaning vomit and feces, and giving out their alchemist-created pills in little paper packets.
Of course, there were other palaces in Jade Kingdom that were taking in evacuees, but none of them had a princess that was out there personally caring for the people. Princesses were not raised to do such menial labor. They were raised to be hot house flowers that would stand by their men and be part of his decoration. The wealthier the man, the prettier his decoration.
His wife was no useless decoration.
Mira had set up a hot rice soup pot out in the center of the garden at daybreak, and her handmaidens were ladling out breakfast and hot ginger tea for the evacuees. The warmth and nourishment from the soup, along with the ginger tea, was helping to keep them from succumbing to the cold.
The place bustled with activity as Daran ran about with his men, bringing in whatever supplies they could scrounge, through hastily erected portals.
The portals were limited in scope, partly because there were only so many wizards on hand to bring people through, and partly because supplies had to be hand-carried in since the portals were too small for carts of goods and large animals.
By noon, Mira had begun the supervision of setting out a soup table. The older folks could get by without lunch, but the children could not last that long. There were too many people, and the Tamein Palace was not prepared to deal with that large of a crowd.
She needed to know the amount of supplies they had on hand.
Leaving the rag tag group of healers and their assistants, Mira grabbed her skirts and took off for the kitchen halls, where she knew Gustus would be at this time of the day.
Gustus Bean, the Tamein Palace Overseer, bowed and scraped when Mira found him in the kitchen area, supervising a group of head cooks with the daily menu for the royal couple.
"Princess! Wh--what can I do for you?"
"Can you show me around the kitchen and food storage areas?"
Gustus Bean's eyes widened with surprise. In his years of working as overseer of many royal kitchens, no princess had ever stepped foot inside the kitchen area, let alone DEMAND an inventory accounting. This princess was asking him to show her where Tamein Palace's food was stored.
"Absolutely. This way please, Your Highness." He passed his scrolls over to his assistant to continue, and personally led the way.
They wound through the large bright kitchen filled with shiny copper pots hanging over a large rough wood work table and benches. Then they went down a long flight of stairs, into the depths of a cool cavern that had been carved into the bedrock under the house.
The rough hewn stone walls were interspersed with small torches that cast tiny pools of wobbling light onto the rough red-tiled floors. The air here was cold, and from the way the flames flickered, air current was flowing in from somewhere.
This was the precious catacomb of underground cellars where the food was kept.
"What kind of grain is this, and this, and this?" Mira pointed to bins filled with various grains and cereals in the first catacomb.
"Ah, this is red wheat, that is yellow corn, and that is brown rice. We also have oat, and barley, and rye. And here is the season's latest winter crop, millet." He proudly boasted.
His eyes grew round when she pulled out a sheaf of paper and began scribbling out the information, using a small piece of coal.
He almost coughed when he saw that she was dirtying her hands with that piece of coal, rather than using any of the beautiful quills and ink pods he so painstakingly provided for the Royal family's use.
What was even more disturbing to Gustus was that the Princess was not writing in the Royal script of Ashrya. She was scratching some strange ugly marks that looked like chicken scratch, but obviously held meaning to her.
Of course, Gustus Bean was a Palace Overseer of the highest caliber. There was no such thing as questioning what the royalties did. As long as they did not say something non-trivial, such as, "Off with his head!" Gustus was quite content with minding his own business.
He waited until she was done with her scribbling and then pointed her to a different cellar room.
"Over here is the vegetable cellar, Your Highness, where we store dried vegetables, root vegetables, fruits, and various squashes and pumpkins. Take a look at these luscious quinces, and over there are the new crop of pomegranates."
"And what are these?" Mira pointed to a wall full of small and medium sized pots.
"Herbs and spices, Your Highness. We also have large barrels of sugar and salt, and large baskets of dried peppers from Topaz."
Then he took her to the beverage cellar, where barrels of aged beer and wine were kept.
"You make your own beer and wine?"
"Oh no, Your Highness." Gustus Bean shook his head with mock horror. "We don't make beer or wine within the Tamein Palace grounds. They are carted in several times a year from Opal City. When we are done with them, the winery and the beer crafters remove the empty casks and replace them with new filled ones. It is so much easier, and far less smelly to not have to make our own beers and wines."
Next to that was the cheese cellar, holding wheels and wheels of various cheeses in a wide assortment of colors. Towards the back of the catacomb was the cellar filled with huge vats of pickled vegetables and olives.
"And the largest of these rooms are where we keep the salted meats and fish. The beef came from Sapphirian cows, and the seafood come right out of Turtle Cove, caught by the merfolk themselves." He said with a flourish of his hand as he led her to the end of the hallway.
The door leading into the meat room was heavy. Gustus Bean grunted as he pushed on the door. It gave a creak and opened with a puff of cold air. "Right this way, Your Highness."
As he led the way, Gustus rubbed his arms to stave off the chill. It was extraordinarily cold in here, not to mention a little spooky.
The dim interior held large hooks hung from the ceiling holding rows and rows of dried salted stacks of ribs, huge rumps and sides of pork, beef, venison, mutton, and chevon, some with heads still attached.
There were salted chickens and ducks and geese, and pheasants, as well as a huge assortment of salted eggs. There were also barrels of brine fish and dried cuttlefish as well as various other types of dried seafood and seaweeds.
Gustus Bean glanced surreptitiously when she took notes of all these. He covered his eyes and wondered if he had laid in enough supplies for the winter to make the Princess happy...
Mira bit her lip as she calculated in her head, the number of people living in Tamein Palace, against the amount of food that was already in storage.
There were around 150 people who lived within the walls of Tamein Palace. These were the cooks, bakers, seamstresses, carriage drivers, horse caretakers, serving staff, cleaning staff, palace guards.
There was also a large number of scribes, cartographers, librarians, and bookkeepers who assisted Prince Zander with his heavy load of administrative duties. This did not include the handful of children who were born within the Tamein Household, to the various serving members.
All this food would be only enough to last the palace staff through part of the winter. Of course, Mira knew that when the supplies had been brought in, it was with the understanding that much of this food would have been augmented by the fresh produce and meats that would be available year round from the farms nearby.
Unfortunately, this was no longer the case.
The blizzard was an anomaly. It was also something that had just destroyed much of the food that the locals had set aside for themselves to last through the winter. A total destruction of foodstuff at the start of a long drawn-out winter was a catastrophe of such magnitude that, if it could not be managed properly, could cause localized famine, which could trigger devastating communicable diseases, and death by starvation.
As it was, food was going to be a problem until the roads could be cleared enough for people to transport supplies into the city. Strangely enough, Jade and the surrounding farm settlements were the only areas affected by the localized blizzard. The other cities were virtually untouched; however, the passes that the supply wagons needed to take to get their goods into Jade City had all but submerged under the snowdrift.
This was a brilliant chess move on the part of whoever it was that had sent the blizzard to Jade. It wasn't enough to take down the city, but over a long enough time, it would weaken the area to the point where no destruction of property or land was needed. Those who wanted the capital could just march in and take it, perfectly preserved.
Mira shook her head and shivered. She hoped things would not escalate to the point of bloodshed.